So here’s a new one… The President is claiming that the idea of summer vacation for kids in school is a bad one and an outdated one…
Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.
Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.
“Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas,” the president said earlier this year. “Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom.”
The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.
“Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
Hard to argue that, right? I mean, you don’t see a lot of field-working kids in 2009. Although, if we’re going to start revoking vacations based on them being part of an outdated worldview, maybe we should start with Congress’ long vacation as well, right?
By tradition and by law, Congress recesses for the month of August. During the Senate’s early years, members attempted to adjourn in the spring, before the summer’s heat and oppressive humidity overwhelmed them and their small staff. When the Senate moved to its current chamber in 1859, senators were optimistic about its “modern” ventilation system, but they soon found the new system ineffective. Long sessions were plagued by hot and stormy weather. The 1920s brought “manufactured weather” to the Senate chamber, but even modern climate control could not cope with the hottest days, forcing 20th-century senators to escape the summer heat. In 1970, finally facing the reality of long sessions, Congress mandated a summer break as part of the Legislative Reorganization Act. Today, the August recess continues to be a regular feature of the Senate schedule–a chance for senators to spend time with family, meet with constituents in their home states, and catch up on summer reading.
Well, we know they aren’t reading bills, and since most of them do travel home and back on weekends, I don’t see a need for a mandated summer break for them, right?
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. There’s no reason to have a break based on the climate of DC in the age of air conditioning. It’s not like the Senate and House chambers have flung the windows open and asked God to do what He will with the temperature.
Yet another example of the government and their “do as I say, but not as I do” mentality.